The Last of Us
by High Roller Yunalesca
Summary: [Direct sequel to "Here I Am."] As mothers, Garnet and Pearl will do whatever it takes to protect their children from any threat at any cost, even if that threat is an old enemy. Will they be able to do so when a certain political movement rears its ugly head once again? Find out now! Rated M for graphic violence and some sexual themes.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I decided to finish this first chapter and post it up here while I could. Anyway, I'm still working on chapter 5 of _Ready to Roll_ and a Rosepearl one-shot while trying to balance a sophomore year of college at the same time. (Hey, nobody ever said it'd be easy!) Have a nice day!**

As Chalcedony laughed hysterically at the thought of the royals taking her into custody, the young Crown Princess Lapis Lazuli rushed forward and spontaneously produced water from her palms.

"I'm going to kill you!" Lapis Lazuli shouted as she had the water in her control freeze Chalcedony into a wall. "And then I'm going to keep killing you and killing you!"

"Oh no, you don't!" Chalcedony yelled out as she struggled for air.

Garnet and Pearl incessantly shook their hands while the blue Gem had her eyes dead-center on her target and her hands hovering at the victim. A young Bloodstone gem also seemed in on the action, for his oversized rifle was cocked straight at Chalcedony's head. But just when he was going to pull the trigger...

 **Two Earth weeks ago...**

"Dear Heliodor!" the Gem ancilla Aventurine exclaimed. "The royal twins look so _beautiful!"_

As it just so happened, the blue-green Gem and her fellow slaves (most of whom she was overseeing) were dressing the newborn Gems Oberon and Titania for their public baptism. The event was to take place in just a while so they had to work extensively hard to make the newest additions look their best. Therefore, the twins were dressed in the finest baptism dresses anybody could afford.

Oberon's gown was a velvet-like raspberry pink bedazzled with red and blue and pink gem shards on the seams and his bonnet was a lighter shade than the gown. His sister was in a much, much more glamorous gown except this one was more closely hued a sunset orange (as was the matching bonnet).

"They sure do, Aventurine," added Tiger Iron. "In fact, they look like they came from the gods themselves."

Just then, Pearl came in to see how everything was coming along. As soon as she took one look at her twins, she began to feel tears well up in her eyes.

"Oh, God bless them," Pearl squeaked with joy as the tears began to roll down her face. "If I had a camera with me, I'd take a picture right now and cherish it forever. I did the same for Steven when I saw his gem glow for the first time."

"How long ago was that?" another Gem ancilla, Larvikite, asked.

"I'd say when he was a baby." the white Gem Queen replied proudly.

"He's 14 years old now, isn't he?"

"Correct."

"That's not such a long time."

"Feels that way to me."

Out of the blue, Garnet came in to take a look for herself. She had on the best, most luxurious red-and-blue figure-hugging cutout dress she could choose from her fabulous wardrobe; to say that the patchwork outfit (made possible, of course, by the aboriginal Vivianites and Zoisites) was a huge turn-on for her wife would be an understatement. She'd even taken the time to make sure her hair was in a bun almost as big as her head. As usual, however, she had her three eyes hidden away by her reflective shades.

 _Oh my..._ Pearl thought to herself when she saw her hot pink Queen. _That dress makes her look so attractive that even the love goddess Hemimorphite would envy her._

The white Gem ran over to Garnet and took her hands into her own. "So," she began to speak to her. "How are you handling things out there?"

"Very well, my Queen," Garnet answered with a smile. "I see our children are looking even more beautiful than when you had them."

"They sure do." Pearl looked back at them and nearly cried again. "God, I hope they don't see me crying like this." She diverted her attention back to her wife before flicking away the tears with just her finger. "Well, what do you say we get this show on the road?"

Garnet nodded and took Pearl by the hand.

"Alright, Your Divinity," Aventurine said. "We're ready to go now. Any final comments before this baptism begins?"

Pearl simply shook her head and smiled.

"That's good enough for us," said Tiger Iron. "Let's go!"

When the queens, their children, and their slaves had made it out to the royal court, they were greeted by several hundred faces in the public crowd as well as many of their royal guards and rulers from other nations. All appeared eager to watch the new pontifex anoint the newborn twins and bless them a lifetime of happiness, love, and endurance. This new pontifex Thaumasite, a pale yellow Gem with magenta tribal markings on her face and shoulders, seemed more than eager to perform her duties as the leader of religious affairs and everyone knew it. In fact, she'd probably waited to become pontifex for a long time.

"Fellow Gems," Thaumasite began to speak. "We have gathered here today to baptize the royal twins, Oberon and Titania, and to celebrate their birth and their induction into a monarchy that has stood the test of time. They are, in fact, the first members of royalty we've had who did not earn their awesome status; impressive, isn't it?" She paused for a moment when she saw that no one had spoken up. "Well, you know what I mean. And so, it is with the purest joy of my heart and the greatest pride of their mothers that I, Fairfax Thaumasite, shall go ahead and cleanse them of all of their ancestors' sins in the name of the Mother Goddess Amber and all of Her children."

As soon as Aventurine and Larvikite had handed the twins over to her, Thaumasite wasted no time in dipping the infants into the bowl of holy water before her.

"In the name of our Mother Goddess Amber and all of Her children, I baptize you." she said.

She made certain that their heads weren't submerged, waited a couple seconds, and then scooped them out. The crowd was awestruck.

But before anything else could be done, the entrance wall abruptly exploded and sent most of the Gems in the crowd crashing down to the floor.

"What was that?!" Pearl asked, baffled by what she'd just witnessed.

It was then that about twenty to twenty-five Gems had swarmed in from the hole they'd created and started attacking the spectators.

"Oh no, not again..." Garnet muttered while burying her face into her palms. She craned her neck towards her wife. "Pearl, we need to get to those intruders and stop them!"

"I'm on it!" Pearl yelled while she summoned her spear from her forehead.

Without hesitation, both Queens leaped up into the air and thrusted down on the attackers. During this time, Garnet also proceeded to summon her gauntlets and strike first onto an Astrophyllite who was just getting ready to unleash her weapon herself. While she was bouncing that Gem's head off of the floor, she managed to sense two other Gems sneaking up right behind her and decided to pursue the suddenly-present opportunity; so right after she'd dealt with the Astrophyllite, she moved straight on to tackling a Joaquinite and an Eclogite into a nearby wall.

Meanwhile, her beautiful wife was fighting spear-to-spear with a Staurolite, a ruddy brown Gem who appeared to have previously engaged in similar duels. Pearl had started off doing well against her opponent, but then when it was Staurolite's turn to strike, she was almost easily overpowered. However, it only took kicking the reddish-brown Gem off their feet and then slashing at them a few times before she ultimately came out on top. Just as she was about to relish in that victory though, another Gem, a Hypersthene, sprang down in front of her and started throwing punches; fortunately, Pearl was able to avoid them with ease.

Eventually, some of the Gems in the crowd started joining in on the rapidly-growing melee; needless to say, it was all very entertaining. By the time they'd taken out the last of the intruders, nearly everyone in the building was celebrating the fact that another attack on the monarches had been prevented. Unfortunately, it only lasted a few seconds before Pearl noticed that her babies had seemingly vanished amidst all the chaos and confusion; upon realizing what must've happened to them, she screamed loudly enough for Garnet to hear her.

"Pearl?" Garnet asked, alarmed by Pearl's screaming. "What's wrong?"

 _"They're gone!"_ Pearl shrieked. "The twins are _gone!"_

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, look!" Pearl diverted Garnet's attention towards Thaumasite's empty arms.

Garnet's eyes widened with fear while she processed while Pearl had said. "They must've been abducted while we were fighting off those intruders!" she gasped. "But who would do such a thing and why?"

"I think the real question is... why were we attacked in the first place?" Thaumasite asked chillingly.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short. I just wanted to make sure I got it out there as quickly as I could. Anyway, I'm still working on chapter 5 of _Ready to Roll_ and I'm not even halfway finished with it. The least I can do is try to balance working on this and the latter concurrently while focusing on college stuff. See ya!**

All the Gems in the throne room, including the queens and the pontifex, started coming up with motives for the attack and the royal twins' abduction. Every single one of the motives that had been shared ranged from greed to spurned love and finally trying to trick the Chalcopyrite Queendom into declaring war with another nation. They even tried to come up with suspects; as with the motives, every single one that was suggested was unique. As the discussion progressed, the arguments became more and more heated.

"None of these suspects make sense!" Aventurine was arguing with Lorenzenite, another ancilla.

"Well, how could _you_ possibly know that, _Seer of All?"_ Lorenzenite asked smugly with a mocking undertone.

"First of all, I met a Realgar once; she may not have been the smartest Gem I ever came across but she was-"

"Oh, so you meant to say Realgars _can't_ be smart enough to pull off a heist like this? I'd also like to remind you, in case you've forgotten, that one of our Queens was once married to a Zoisite and he nearly killed her _and the entire human race!"_

While all this quarreling was going on, Pearl was kneeling on the floor and crying her eyes out. She felt like she had failed her children both and that only made the tears scroll down her face even more. Garnet, who was growing rather tired of all this bickering, came over and sat down next to her in the hopes of consoling her. Out of the blue, she saw a vision of their children slowly being tortured in front of about a hundred Gems or more before then having their heads chopped off and their gems obliterated; worse still, it appeared the ones responsible for their slow and brutal deaths were actually the very same revolutionaries who'd previously tried to kill them in the womb. It scared her out of her wits.

She jerked her head towards her wife in order to give her her whole gaze. "Pearl, our children are in danger!" she yelled. "We need to find them!"

"Do you even know where they are?" the white Gem Queen asked, her voice growing slightly higher-pitched with worry.

That was when Garnet grabbed her wife's face and kissed her on the lips. Right after, Pearl saw the vision of the revolutionaries hurting their children and she reeled back in horror.

"B-But how?" she asked again. "How would they know to strike here?"

"We'll have to find that out ourselves," Garnet replied. "Right now, we need to look for our children."

"Where would we even start?"

"With a bounty hunter..."

* * *

"I wish you the best of luck, Your Majesties," Larvikite said. "I just hope you and the children come back in one piece."

"So do I," Pearl sighed. "The last thing I want- well, what any of us want, really -is to see an infant's gem shattered into smithereens."

The white Gem Queen and her wife proceeded to gather everything they needed for their search, including additional weapons and handbooks on how to deal with native communities, and started to go on their way. Out of the blue, Larimar showed up and blocked their path.

"Larimar?" Pearl cried out of startlation. "What are you doing here?"

"I'd heard that someone kidnapped the twins during the baptism," her Caribbean blue sister replied. "So I decided to come and ask if I could help."

"Larimar, I appreciate the gesture but given how dependent you are on other Gems, I'm concerned you might not hold your own against their abductors. I'm sorry, dear sister, but you'll have to be with us in spirit."

"I'm not _that_ reliant, am I?"

"Only the Gods know; still, better to be safe than sorry."

Pearl hugged her sister tightly and then sent her on her way. Immediately after, Garnet came up behind her and scooped her up into her arms.

"Pearl," the hot pink Gem Queen began. "I know you don't seem optimistic about this search, but we shan't give up. We'll look in every last corner of this dimension if we have to. We _have_ to find them, okay?"

"Okay..." Pearl reluctantly agreed.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Sorry it took so long. I'm still working on chapter 9 of _Ready to Roll_ amongst other things; on top of that, Measured recently offered me the chance to look over a chapter of her fanfic _Something New_ (if you haven't read that already, do it now!) but I've otherwise got it up now.**

 **Please enjoy!**

The first stop the Queens hit was the Imperial Palace of Iolite to ask the Crown Empress and her husband for help in finding the children. It was immediate, the moment they'd decided to drop by, that the Emperor and Empress would come out to meet them on the front steps of their palace.

"Why, hello, Your Majesties," Empress Unakite greeted the Queens. "It's always nice to see you two drop by. Now what brings you here?"

"It's our children, Unakite-kōgō," Garnet said as directly as possible. "They've been kidnapped."

"Hmm, so I've heard." She looked over to a clearly distressed Pearl. "Well, we're obviously going to need them back before anything bad happens to them. Follow me."

"Where are we going?"

"Inside. I think my daughter might be able to help you get the children back."

"Wait," Pearl interjected. "You mean you're not coming with us?"

"Of course not. Just like you, my husband and I have an empire to take care of. However, when we took it over from Empress Duhamelite, we promised to stay put and do our jobs and not spend much of our free time on Earth having sex."

Pearl was dumbfounded that Empress Unakite even knew about that tryst on Earth that created the twins. "Fair enough."

"I will say this, though: you two aren't terrible monarchs- far from it, actually -but you're not great monarchs, either. Keep that in mind, please."

She then led the Queens up one of three flights of stairs into Princess Lapis Lazuli's room and promptly slammed the door behind her.

"Why'd you bring us here?" Pearl asked curiously.

"Because I know that she'll help you immensely if she comes with you on your quest to save the kids," Empress Unakite explained.

Garnet cleared her throat. "We appreciate your offer," she said. "But we were actually hoping to hire a bounty hunter for this mission."

"You could still do that, you know," the Crown Empress suggested. "Some of the most famous bounty hunters in Cordierite City hang out in this little tavern called Labradorite's Legacy, which is located just miles away from the Iolite-Zincgartrellite border. If you can see the signs, you've found it."

"What signs?"

"The signs for the tavern, of course."

"Good to know."

"Good." Pause. "Lapis Lazuli-hime! Would you come out here please?"

"Ugh, fine!" groaned the voice of a young Gem princess.

The young Crown Princess Lapis Lazuli, a totally blue Gem with a teardrop-shaped gem on her back, came out of her private bathroom to face her mother and their visitors. She was clearly in a surly mood but she still tried to act polite for politeness's sake.

"Hello, fellow visitors," she spoke with apathy. "What brings you here?" However, it didn't take long before she recognized them and exclaimed with pure joy, "Your Majesties!" She ran up to them and embraced them both, but as soon as she broke away, she bitch-slapped Pearl right across the face.

"Lazuli!" Empress Unakite scolded. "How dare you treat Her Divinity Pearl like that?!"

"Thanks for throwing me under the bus, you bitch..." Princess Lapis Lazuli growled to Pearl's face.

"You're welcome?" Pearl replied while she reeled from the sting.

"Lazuli-hime, listen to us," Garnet began. "Our children were just kidnapped a little while ago and we need your help."

"Oh, certainly," the blue Gem princess said. "What do you want me to do?"

"We're not sure yet, but we're definitely going to need you to help us stop the terrorists that took our children and almost killed us at our wedding."

Princess Lapis Lazuli gasped softly at this. "Are you referring to the terrorist group known as Sikudzakhalanso Mafumu? Those guys will stop at nothing until they've overthrown all the monarchs they can find and killed them. Worse yet, according to rumors, the founder was supposed to be the next in line for the Zultanite throne until her family disowned her."

"Why did they disown her?"

"Hell if I know, but if we're going to get the kids back, we're gonna have to do it quickly."

"Agreed!"


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Well, I'm going back to college next week so expect a few delays with this,** ** _Eyes on Me_** **, and** ** _Ready to Roll_** **. Plus, I've got to do some beta-reading for** ** _Something New_** **and possibly rewrite a couple sentences.**

 **Anyway, I hope this chapter tides you over.**

 **Enjoy!**

When they'd made their way over to Labradorite's Legacy, they were surprised to see that the entire tavern was packed with literally hundreds and hundreds of patrons. It was so crowded, in fact, that it was impossible to spot the booths at either end.

"Dear fucking St. Macphersonite," Pearl muttered to herself. "How are we supposed to find a bounty hunter in here?"

"Hold on," Princess Lapis Lazuli said. "I think I've got it."

"What is it?"

"Just watch."

The blue Gem Princess rolled her shoulders back and forth and then stepped in front of Pearl.

"Hey, everybody!" she suddenly yelled. "I just saw High Priestesses Childrenite and Warwickite fucking each other in front of the Temple of Azurite!" There were no immediate responses. "It's supposed to be sexy!"

Most of the bar patrons ran out to see for themselves while they pushed the three royal figureheads aside. Once the dust cleared, only a few of them remained and the booths at both ends were now more visible than ever.

"Nice strategy, Your Highness," the bartender said. "I wish I'd thought of it sooner."

"Thank you, my fellow Uranophane," Princess Lapis Lazuli responded. "I just improvised right then."

Uranophane smirked in amusement at this. "Alright, so what do you three want?"

"We're looking for a bounty hunter who'll help us get our kids back," Garnet answered. "They were kidnapped from us."

The yellow Gem bartender softly gasped at this. "W-Were the Sikudzakhalanso Mafumu responsible, by any chance?" she asked with a tremor, seeming to know what the hot pink Gem Queen meant. "Oh, sweet Pumice, they're the most ruthless sons of bitches anybody could go up against. It would definitely be wise to bring along a bounty hunter."

"Do you have any here right now?" Pearl asked with as much optimism as she could muster up.

"Well," Uranophane started. "This place hasn't really seen any today... but there's one sitting right over..." She pointed with her left hand to a booth located at the east end of the bar.

"...there."

The three royals looked over to see what she was pointing at. Indeed, a Dumortierite was sitting there, leaning in his seat with his arms crossed in front of him. He had some dust on his face that looked kind of like beard stubble and there appeared to be bags under his eyes. His hair was a bit disheveled, but aside from that, everything else appeared to be fine.

"Oh, thank the Venerable Goddess!" Pearl exclaimed.

"However, I must warn you," Uranophane cut in. "He's got somebody helping him so don't make him feel bad, alright?"

The white Gem Queen, her wife, and the blue Gem Princess walked right over to where Dumortierite was sitting and claimed their respective seats.

"Um, can I help you?" Dumortierite asked, a bit annoyed that three new people had decided to share the booth with him.

"You're a bounty hunter, right?" Pearl answered with another question.

"No, but my boss is."

"Well, where is he? We need to talk to him."

All of a sudden, the bathroom door swung open and a young, kinda stout Bloodstone stumbled out with toilet paper stuck to his shoe.

"You're looking at him," Bloodstone boldly replied with a shit-eating grin.

His outfit consisted of a dirt-brown poncho, a flat straw hat, tarnished silver steampunk goggles, and maroon combat boots. In his hand was a huge rifle that he couldn't quite wrap his fingers around and it was swaying ever so slightly beneath the child's palm.

"Okay... aren't you a little young to be a bounty hunter?" Pearl asked suspiciously.

"Well, actually, I'm the youngest bounty hunter there ever was." He pointed to his head. "And it's all because of my big noggin here. Potential clients usually don't take me seriously, though, so that's why I have my guardian come with."

"So that man, Dumortierite, is your guardian and your assistant?"

"Duh! He took me in when I was just a baby. In fact, he's the reason I'm alive today!"

"Okay then." It took a minute for Pearl to process everything the kid was telling her. "Well, we need you to-"

"Don't worry, you don't need to tell me what the sitch is. I heard it all in the bathroom. If we're going to get your children back, though, then we're gonna have to do it quickly. Besides, we promised another client we'd track down the scumbags he thinks kidnapped his daughter."

"Ooh, can we stop by his place?" Princess Lapis Lazuli asked curiously. "Maybe he could tag along with us and help stop those terrorists. That way, we could kill two birds with one stone."

"That's... sad that someone would want to do that," Dumortierite commented.

"It's an idiom, Morty," Bloodstone said. "Humans use them all the time from what I've heard." He then directed his attention at Princess Lapis Lazuli. "Sure, we can do that. Follow me."

The young bounty hunter led his new companions outside to a hovering sky-tractor (which, fortunately for them, had enough seats for five people) and prompted them to go to the back. He then jumped into the driver's seat while his guardian sat beside him and the rest of the group got into their positions.

"All right, gang," Bloodstone said. "Are you ready for over nine thousand horsepower?"

"I-I guess," Pearl replied, a bit worried by what he just said.

He turned the ignition key and the engine started revving up for their next stop. Princess Lapis Lazuli held onto Garnet for dear life while the hot pink Gem Queen did the same with her wife, who was also squeezing Dumortierite tightly to herself as though she loved him.

"And away we go!" Bloodstone yelled as the sky-tractor rocketed away from the tavern and onto their next destination.


End file.
